World Markets Are Getting Smacked (DIA, SPY, SPX, QQQ)

Markets are getting walloped in Europe. And it looks like the U.S. is heading lower.

Dow futures are down 136 points.

S&P 500 futures are down 15 points.

Nasdaq futures are down 29 points.

The big ugly headline of the morning is coming out of Portugal. Banco Espirito Santo, the country's second largest bank, is reportedly at risk of missing a debt payment. And the stock is crashing, down by over 14%.

Portugal's PSI 20 index is down by 4.3%. Elsewhere in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 is down 0.8%, France's CAC 40 is down 1.4%, Germany's DAX is down 1.4%, Spain's IBEX is down 2.4%, and Italy's FTSE MIB is down 2.0%.

There has also been a decent amount of disappointing economic news since Wednesday's U.S. markets closed. Fresh data out of France and Italy have economists concerned that those economies could be in the midst of contraction.

Later today, we'll get the latest tally of U.S. weekly initial jobless claims. Economists estimate claims came in at 315,000, which would be the same level as last week's 315,000 print.

"Initial jobless claims continue to linger below 320k," said Nomura economists. "This suggests that layoffs have bottomed out and also corroborates the strong payroll growth and declines in the unemployment rate we?ve seen this year."

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 closed at 1,972, which isn't too far from its all-time high of 1,985.

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